Getty Images, the world leader in visual communications, and Visual China Group (VCG)[000681.SZ], a leading Chinese visual communications and new media business, today announced a global distribution partnership which will see customers globally benefit from an unprecedented content offering. The existing Getty Images collection of almost 200 million images spanning creative and editorial, stills and video, contemporary and archival, is expanding to include Corbis imagery, video and historic archival content. This content will be available to customers in China via the VCG platform and to the rest of the world via Getty Images’ global sales teams and industry-leading website, gettyimages.com.

Under the terms of their agreement with Corbis, VCG will own and manage the names and trademarks associated with the Corbis Images, Corbis Motion and Veer licensing brands, and will be responsible for the licensing of all images associated with these brands in China and around the world. This includes the renowned Bettmann and Sygma Archives, but does not include Corbis Entertainment (to be rebranded) and Splash.

As the most trusted and esteemed source of visual content in the world, Getty Images is always innovating to bring its customers the most comprehensive offering of diverse and high quality content in the market. The addition of Corbis content to Getty Images’ industry-leading collection means Getty Images now offers customers an unprecedented breadth and depth of gold-standard content across creative and editorial, stills and video, and contemporary and archival.
Getty Images is the trusted partner to a network of over 200,000 contributors and approximately 330 prestigious image partners relationships, including NBC Universal, BBC Worldwide and AFP, and is pleased to now represent Corbis content as well.
Further, VCG has been exclusively distributing Getty Images content in China for over a decade. This collaboration will further strengthen the long term partnership between these two companies in the visual content sector.

Corbis will be focused on building and growing its entertainment advertising business under a different brand. The sale does not include the three Corbis Entertainment businesses – the Branded Entertainment Network, Splash and Greenlight, its rights clearance and representation business.
Corbis Entertainment will be rebranded under a new name in the coming months.

Nothing changes immediately for you today. You can continue to find and purchase content using your existing Corbis and/or VEER account, and you can continue to work with your current sales representative.

VCG and Getty Images will immediately begin work to migrate Corbis content and will complete the migration as quickly as possible to ensure a seamless transition for customers, contributors and other partners. During the transition, the content will continue to be available via Corbis websites and sales staff. VCG and Getty Images will provide more details on this process and timeline in the coming weeks.

Over the coming months, we will begin migrating Corbis content over to Getty Images where it will become available as new collections. This means that customers will be able to easily filter their searches to see only the migrated Corbis content, or to view it alongside Getty Images’ existing collections if you prefer. We will share details of the new collections in the coming months.

For now, nothing changes – Corbis and Corbis Motion customers can continue to access their content via the existing websites. VCG and Getty Images will contact customers in the coming months to share more details about the transition of content from Corbis Images and Corbis Motion to gettyimages.com.

For now, nothing changes. Veer customers should continue to access their content via the Veer.com website. During the transition period, VCG and Getty Images will evaluate opportunities to improve the value and benefits for Veer customers, and will reach out to customers with more details in the coming weeks.

• An unprecedented offering representing almost 200 million images and combining the premium content of Corbis and Getty Images across creative and editorial, stills and video, and contemporary and archival.

• Even more of the highest quality content all in one place – the best of historical photography brought together, combining Getty Images’ renowned Hulton Archive, the largest privately held archive globally with an estimated 80 million images dating back to the beginning of photography, with the Sygma and Bettmann Archives. The Bettmann Archive is one of the most significant historical collections of images in the world comprised of more than 11 million photographs from the 19th and 20th centuries.

• Corbis content with pricing for every budget level on gettyimages.com, from truly unique Prestige imagery to royalty-free imagery that will be available for purchase via UltraPacks with simple licensing and built-in savings.

Expertly curated content from Corbis creative stills, Corbis Motion content and Corbis archival and documentary content, inclusive of the prestigious Bettmann and Sygma archives, via the gettyimages.com website.
Getty Images will focus on integrating Corbis content, and contributors and image partners that it does not already represent, to create an even broader offering of content across creative and editorial, stills and video, and contemporary and archival housed all in one place at gettyimages.com.